Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis ran to the north with his full speed. He knew the power of someone at the Spirit Forming Realm very well. If a Spirit Forming Realm expert only had their Energy and their physical strength to fight, then Gravis might have a chance of killing the opponent, but those things were not the main advantage that someone in the Spirit Forming Realm had over people below them.

The most significant advantage was the Spirit in itself. As an Energy Gathering Realm cultivator, Gravis could only use his element in a one-dimensional way. He could use his lightning to move faster and to attack the enemy. Compared to that, someone at the Spirit Forming Realm could create figures, patterns, objects, and other things with their element.

Back then, that one disciple of the Lightning Guild had created lightning nets in front of Gravis and had controlled those remotely. The only reason why Gravis managed to survive against that person was that they were multiple kilometers apart.

That distance had given Gravis enough time to react appropriately. If such an expert fought with Gravis in close quarters, Gravis would probably die. He could only survive if he had incredible luck, and well… Gravis didn't trust his luck.

On top of that, it wouldn't be enough if Gravis only won. Winning and killing were two entirely different things. Winning a fight meant that one was stronger than the opponent. This didn't exclude the possibility of retreat. The opponent could still flee and come back later.

If the enemy were a Spirit Forming Realm expert and they retreated, Gravis would be in for a bad time. If Gravis won in a fight but didn't kill the person, they could just follow him from some kilometers distance and attack him with their element remotely.

The enemy could shoot and control their attacks from a distance and rest when they wanted, while Gravis had to defend passively. Gravis wouldn't be able to rest, while the Spirit Forming Realm expert had time to rest.

Gravis also wouldn't be able to attack the person from that distance. Gravis didn't have a formed Spirit, which meant that he couldn't feel his opponent if they tried to hide. No Spirit Forming expert would be stupid enough to allow the Energy in the air to give them away.

In that situation, the expert would just attack him from time to time, and even if Gravis played everything perfectly and never made a mistake, he would still be exhausted to death. Gravis might have a humongous Energy storage thanks to the Pre-Forming Technique, but his physical stamina and concentration couldn't be kept up forever. He would never be able to rest, while the enemy could rest whenever they wanted.

For all these reasons, Gravis needed to kill the expert. If he didn't kill the enemy, he would die.

'The Earth Guild is pretty close to the Core-Continent, and if I hurry up, I should be able to get to the Wind Wall in about an hour. I only have a shot at killing the expert with the support of the Wind Wall,' Gravis thought.

The Wind Wall was the dividing line between the Middle-Continent and the Core-Continent. The Core-Continent was circular and was surrounded by a deep gorge going all around it. The Energy with higher density from the Core-Continent met the Energy with lower density from the Middle-Continent over this gorge. The density of the Energy would be equalized when they met.

Usually, something like that wouldn't be noticeable. There hadn't been an issue with the transition from the Outer-Continent to the Middle-Continent, after all. The thing that made everything different this time was the gigantic gorge.

The Energy with higher density would drop down into the gorge and expand crazily. This expansion shoved the air and Energy above it away from the gorge, creating an Energy-free spot for a very short time. In that short time-frame, more Energy from the Core-Continent would slip by and fall into the gorge, which then expanded again.

This whole process generated a violent and destructive wind over the gorge with the strength to annihilate people at the Energy Gathering Realm. Only people in the Spirit Forming Realm could safely traverse the Wind Wall. That was also why weaker people were always accompanied by people in the Spirit Forming Realm when they crossed the two continents' borders.

This violent wind had no will, which made it controllable by Gravis' Elemental Synchronicity. Only with the help of such a natural, violent wind would Gravis be able to kill someone at the Spirit Forming Realm. A controlled element was many times stronger than an uncontrolled one.

'With my powerful body and Destruction Lightning, I should have the same speed as a new Spirit Forming Realm cultivator that didn't reach the tenth level of Energy Gathering. I don't believe that I am saying this, but I am actually lucky that so few people have reached the tenth level of Energy Gathering in this lower world.'

Gravis' eyes narrowed with battle-intent. 'Now, it all depends on the element of my enemy. If my enemy has the earth, fire, water, darkness, or light element, I should be able to reach the Wind Wall without any issues. If they have the lightning element, I might need to resist some attacks, though my body is powerful enough to resist some attacks. Yet, if the enemy has the wind element, I might have a problem.'

Gravis had been running for five minutes without an issue. Of course, he never managed to leave the area of the enemy's Spirit. It was evident that the person was following him.

"I wonder," Gravis heard a voice inside his head suddenly. This could only be the transmitted thoughts of his enemy. The only thing that Gravis could glean from this voice was that his enemy was male. "Where are you running to?" asked the voice with interest.

Gravis couldn't transmit his own thoughts, so he couldn't answer. He also didn't want to shout loudly since tunning took up all of his concentration right now.

"Initially," the voice continued, "I thought you would be running to the Heaven Sect for safety. Though, I can also understand why you didn't run there. It's pretty far away after all."

Gravis gleaned another nugget of information from that. The person still believed that he was a Heavenborn, which meant that the person had such an intense enmity with Gravis that he didn't mind dying if it meant killing Gravis. For the life of him, Gravis wasn't able to think of any person in the Spirit Forming Realm that wanted him to die so badly. The only exception would be Aion, but if it were Aion chasing him, Gravis would already be dead.

Heavenborn and normal people were like Heaven and Earth. In comparison to ordinary people, Heavenborn were born with a strengthened dantian, which meant that every Spirit Forming Heavenborn had reached the tenth level of Energy Gathering before breaking through. They also had their Heavenly Pressure, on top of that.

Those two things created a massive divide between Heavenborn and normal cultivators. Gravis guessed that Aion could probably kill people a level higher than himself. Gravis wouldn't even be able to fight him.

"Yet, "the voice continued, "I still don't know why you chose this particular direction. Are you actually trying to flee to the Core-Continent? You do know about the Wind Wall, right? And even if you manage to reach the Core-Continent through the Wind Wall, what would that even accomplish?"

If Gravis had the ability to answer with his thoughts, he would. He could gain some time by discussing different things. Every minute without an attack was a minute closer to the Wind Wall.

"You know," this time, Gravis heard a physical voice from his right, and he turned his head over. There, he saw an older man with green robes, flying close to the ground while looking at him. They were only a few meters apart. "You can just answer me," the person said from the side.

Gravis got goosebumps when he realized that the expert had already caught up with him. On top of that, the expert wore green robes and was flying across the ground. This could only mean one thing.

'Wind Guild!'